LARRY BALLOU

A VOYAGE OF HONOR

Larry Ballou

Larry Ballou has been on a voyage for almost 40 years. He has obediently followed God’s course. Fierce winds have threatened the ship’s voyage, and most often these winds blew in at the eleventh hour. But with God’s humble and obedient captain at the rudder, funding sources were made available, as well as job opportunities. The ADAP Program sails on. A change is coming at the beginning of 2015. This ship will be docked just long enough for Larry to hand over the rudder to a new captain who God has selected to continue the voyage.

Tucked away in the tiny town of Lansing, an agency shines with opportunity and purpose for several special folks. This group of people proudly wears attributes that we all could use more of, especially in the workplace. These include pure happiness, innocence, unconditional love, and positive regard. Their work ethic is alive in their attitudes everyday. They feel blessed to count themselves employed, and appreciate their job opportunities. They don’t drag their feet in dread, but show up, eager and with a full on positive attitude at ADAP (Adult Developmental Activity Program). Thankfully, the director of this program has remained steadfast and shares his influences that have empowered him to share many blessings with this very special population.

Born the third of four children, it would be a number of years before I and my siblings would realize what a blessing God had gifted us in the form of parents. Our mom and dad personified the word “service,” and would pass that attribute along to each of their children. Bill and Opal Ballou had married following his term of service in the U.S. Army during World War II, which included a period of several months incarceration in a German Prisoner of War camp. That experience would have a lasting effect on my father, and motivated him throughout his adulthood to try to make life better for others. Following their marriage, the young couple moved to Winston-Salem where they worked and began their family, returning to Ashe County for the birth of each child. Following my first year in grade school, our family moved back to Ashe County where they established their family home. That home was no more than a quarter mile from my maternal grandparents, where I would enjoy many meals, overnight stays and lots of opportunities to work on my grandfather’s little farm. In addition to my grandparents, there was a third member of that household: my uncle Darrell. All of my other uncles had their own homes, but Darrell, a grown man, was still in the care of my grandparents - he had been born with Down’s Syndrome and an intellectual disability, as well as speech and hearing impairments which kept him from hearing and speaking. Darrell was, for the most part, a happy man content with his life and chores on the farm. He did, however, have no difficulty in communicating his displeasure when something didn’t go his way. It would not be until years later that I would come to understand just how deeply Darrell had influenced my life. I believe God was setting the stage for a job He had in mind for me and He was using Uncle Darrell to prepare me for that job.

Following high school, college and my first job, I was hired to become the Executive Director of a newly formed Ashe County non-profit organization created for the purpose of developing a day program for adults with intellectual disabilities. A $25,000 grant from a religious organization provided the seed money to secure a location for the agency and hire the initial staff. In 1975, we opened the doors of Ashe County ADAP(Adult Developmental Activity Program). As the grant funds dwindled, we learned that a moratorium had been placed on state funding for any new ADAP services. That would be our first of many eleventh hour crisis situations, and just when we feared our service to the people we served would have to close its doors, a new avenue of funding came on the scene. That funding source lasted long enough for the state to lift the moratorium on ADAP services and our agency was included in the state funding plan. During that early period when funding was uncertain, we continued to receive referrals from local agencies. By our third year we realized that the service we needed most to provide our participants was the opportunity to perform real work. We reasoned that the most normal thing for an adult (with or without a disability) to be doing on a daily basis was work. Sprague Electric (now United Chemi-Con) gave us that first opportunity and through the ensuing years we saw work opportunities come to us from Thomasville Chair plant, Gates Rubber Company, Oldham, Leviton, and other smaller companies, many of which are no longer located or operating in Ashe. AEV is the most recent manufacturer to join the ranks of local companies providing work to ADAP. Each of those companies found the workers employed by ADAP to be productive and quality conscious individuals who demon

strated a strong work ethic, and a desire to do even the most rudimentary of jobs. Our workers grew to believe in themselves as capable, worthy individuals who could work and earn an income which they could then spend in the local marketplace as they chose.

As the agency grew in number of participants and work opportunities, its original location within the old hospital building in Jefferson became unsuitable. Once again a need was met when a Small Business Administration loan was approved for ADAP to purchase its present location in Lansing. The agency purchased the building and paid the loan from the net income it derived from its work contracts with local industry. A contract to launder towels for Gates Rubber Company allowed the agency to purchase the Lansing Laundromat, and there we laundered as many as 1000 towels per work day at a time when Gates was producing curved radiator hose.

As our workers became more accustomed to work being a part of their daily lives, we began to think about taking our service to the next level and placing individuals in jobs within the community. About that time funding became available for a service called Supported Employment, and ADAP received one of the early grants to develop community based work opportunities for the people we served. While we knew not everyone we served wanted to work in the community, we also recognized that some of our workers had the capabilities to learn and perform quality work for employers throughout the county. As we talked with employers, opportunities became available and we were able to place and support many of our participants at community work sites. One of our most recent integrated worksites is the kitchen at our new Law Enforcement Center. The integration of our workers into the general workforce has been rewarding for both non-disabled employees, as well as the workers we support who have some disability. It has been very fulfilling to see the perceived differences between disabled and non-disabled workers fade in importance when people work alongside each other.

To be sure, Ashe County ADAP has struggled to survive in a county where jobs are not plentiful, but yet where employers are willing to take a chance and employ persons with disabilities. As I prepare to retire and look back over my career, I am amazed at how blessed this little agency has been. We have endured when times were bleak, and I am convinced that our survival has been sustained by a God who loves all people, and “all” includes people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities. My uncle Darrell taught me that he was worthy of respect and capable of accomplishing things I would have assumed he could not do. My parents taught me to put the needs of others ahead of my own and to do whatever I could to make life better for someone else. I hope I have done that in some small way for the people served by ADAP during my tenure as its Director. In hindsight I see our success being credited to a Board of Directors who had a vision and a desire to see our participants be fully accepted in our community. I see a wife who supported me through years of long work hours and needless worry. I see a staff of dedicated, caring men and women who settled for little pay but big rewards in the accomplishments of the people we served. I am humbled to have served with them and awed by their absolute dedication to the individuals who have honored us with their loyalty and appreciation. I see a host of men and women who served as county commissioners who recognized the value of having a vocational service for adults with disabilities, providing them an opportunity to work. My leaving is a most insignificant event when one looks to the future and the challenges that lie ahead. Challenges equal opportunities, and my sincere hope is that employers, factories and businesses will see the potential that workers with disabilities bring to the workplace. I am excited to see what God will accomplish in the next 40 years with a homegrown agency called Ashe County ADAP. God is not yet finished with the Ballou family either. My daughter Bevin continues her grandfather’s legacy of service as the director of Ashe Assisted Living and Memory Care. …And my grandson Braeden, just 3 years old now; I wonder what God has in mind for him. I close with a line borrowed from the movie God’s NOT Dead: “God is good all the time, and all the time? God is good”.

I had three goals in compiling this information and they were: 1. To honor God who made and continues to make everything possible for ADAP to exist, 2. To honor my parents who taught me

how to serve, and 3. To portray the individuals served by ADAP as people worthy of the same dignity and respect that is afforded everyone else. I probably missed the mark, but that is what I wanted to do. I consider my retirement to be completely un-noteworthy, and only the launching pad for greater things to come from new leadership in a new era. Basically, it’s not what I have done for them, but what they have done for me.

There remains a group of special needs adults who benefit daily on this voyage - their journey is not quite finished. Godspeed to Larry Ballou and the legacy he leaves behind. Written with Kim Furches ~